Giant television screens had been placed at strategic points on the lawn. There was an air of exuberance and anticipation. All eyes were on the stage with its colorful backdrop and long runway, where any moment now Barack Obama would emerge to speak for the first time as president-elect of the United States. The joy was palpable, all across the country. More than 70 million of our fellow citizens gathered around their television sets. Something historic had happened. Whether you were black or white or Hispanic or Asian or whatever—if you had lived in America over the last fifty years, you had seen the slow decline of racial strife. The election had confirmed that movement in our collective humanity. But this night was about more than race, or how yet another person from humble origins had ascended to America’s highest office, or how the young president-elect had beaten the political odds to win the nomination. It was about a new generation of Americans discovering their inspiration in the words of a political leader, and an older generation finding those words more deeply imbedded in their souls than they would ever have thought possible.
